1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a disc brake apparatus for applying a braking force to a vehicle such as an automobile.
2. Background Art
In general, a disc brake apparatus provided to a vehicle such as an automobile includes a mounting member, a caliper, and a pair of friction pads. The mounting member is mounted to a non-rotating portion of the vehicle. The mounting member includes a pair of arms which are separated apart from each other in a direction of rotation of a disc rotor so that each of the arms passes over an outer circumferential side of the disc rotor in an axial direction. The caliper is movably provided to the arms of the mounting member. The pair of friction pads are movably supported by the arms of the mounting member and are pressed against both surfaces of the disc rotor by the caliper, respectively. There is also known a disc brake apparatus which includes biasing members respectively provided between the arms of the mounting member and the friction pads (for example, see Japanese Patent Domestic Announcement No. Hei 10-503267. The biasing members elastically bias the friction pads in a direction separating apart from the disc rotor.
In the conventional technology described above, a single spring piece is provided to each of the biasing members respectively provided between the arms of the mounting member and the friction pads so as to prevent pad dragging when a braking operation is released. The spring piece has both the function of returning the corresponding friction pad to a non-braking position and the function of enabling the movement of the corresponding biasing member relative to the arm in accordance with the wear of the friction pads. However, the spring piece of each of the biasing members described above has a problem in that a portion which is placed in a locked state with respect to the corresponding arm of the mounting member is likely to be worn away at an early time to lower durability and a lifetime.